Fascism is a partisan philosophy that fosters a monolithic and exclusionary state constituted under an authoritarian despot. This narrative has played out repeatedly with calamitous costs. Its forerunners were the Italian fascists and Nazis. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 (CAB), coupled with the NRC, is its latest manifestation. It is an affront to the first principles of constitutionalism. It violates Articles 14, 15, 16, 21, 25 and 26 of the Constitution, in addition to the basic structure doctrine evolved by the Supreme Court in 1973 in the Kesavananda Bharati case and upheld in a catena of judgments since then.
The concept of citizenship first arose in city-states of ancient Greece, where it applied to privileged sections of society. The Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 codified the concepts of sovereignty along with those of citizenship and nationality. Modern concepts of citizenship crystallised and gained momentum in the 18th century during the American and French revolutions and then got further fleshed out at the Congress of Vienna...
